


Fry cook romance au

by Lilydragon_artist



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Aged-Up Dib (Invader Zim), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Both the boys need love, Depression, Dib is a space traveler, Dib tries to win zim over, Fluff and Angst, Foodcourtia zim, M/M, Older Dib (Invader Zim), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Work In Progress, ZaDr, Zadr centric fic, Zim is Bad at Feelings (Invader Zim), Zim is Defective (Invader Zim), Zim is Depressed, both of them are lonely
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26653753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilydragon_artist/pseuds/Lilydragon_artist
Summary: Zim has been stuck on foodcourtia for years ( zim never managed to escape foodcourtia the first time, he never got to join operation impending doom 2) and its really taken its toll on him mentally, he's not doing well,  he lost his purpose and food service has broken down his sense of purpose and his normally confident self assured personality. Dib, now a space traveler, has decided to stop at foodcourtia for lunch, dib isnt doing well either, he's been wandering the galaxy aimlessly, he doesn't know what to do with himself, he decided he was done with earth awhile ago, but it turns out space isn't what he thought it would be either. Not that space isn't amazing but, hes kinda lonely.
Relationships: Dib & Zim (Invader Zim), Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	Fry cook romance au

Dib is a space traveler, he found a crashed ship when he was younger (he couldn't find a pilot) and at first tried to prove it was a space ship but everyone insisted it was just space junk because it didn't work, so he dedicated his teenage years to fixing it and by the time he was an adult, he realized he didn't want to be on earth,(or maybe him and membrane get into a fight and he leaves on impulse) (gaz knows about the ship) and he tells gaz that he's going on a trip to space, gaz is annoyed, and tells dib he has to come back after a year to see her and dad, and attend family dinner night, to give her a communicator and to bring her back some space games, and he tells membrane he's going on a trip for a year, and membrane says that he wants him to work in his lab, and dib says he needs a year off to figure out what he wants, membrane tells him he should want to work in real science, they fight and dib storms out, and tells gaz he'll be back in a year.

//  
Dib landed his ship on foodcourtia, he'd been traveling to the nearest jump gate on his way to cyberflox to browse some of the more illegal items, but first he needed food. he docked his ship and climbed out looking messy, his hair is unbrushed, and his clothes looked like he slept in them, he heads out of the docking bay into the massive crowd and looks around, before picking a random place for food. 'this one looks cheap enough' he thinks looking at a particular food place, before walking in. The air is heavy with the stench of grease and sweat with a pleasant undertone of fried food, and there are many other species here, he walks up to the counter..... where a small green alien with beautiful pink galaxy like eyes is working the counter, their eyes look bored and exhausted, like they hate every moment of this.

"What do you want?" A high pitched voice demands, it takes dib a minute to realize it's coming from the little green alien, apparently they were male, they sounded male at least...Kind of.

He suddenly finds himself at a loss for words  
"U-um, ill have... the um... qark wings, and um, fried thilax tentacles... with um, glorbberry dipping sauce."

He sighs "is that it?"

"Um.. some water... please."

He mutters something about weird aliens and adds up the total, "that's 165 monies." 

Dib pulls out the money and hands it to him and zim walks off to the back to make the food.

Dib finds a table and sits down, it wasn't very clean, but he didnt think about that, he was full of thoughts about that pink eyed alien he met, his eyes, they were so deep and beautiful, like the depths of space or the ocean. He looked so uncomfortable in that greasy uniform, it bothered him how tired and depressed he looked, it seemed cruel, did all the workers here look that miserable?

He sighs and waits for his food, and to his mild surprise the same alien came back "wait, you're serving food too?" 

He rolls his eyes "sizzlor decided he wanted a vacation and gashloog is on his break, so I'm stuck here.... alone..."

"Oh... um, whats your name?" He says awkwardly trying to change the subject.

"Zim." He says bluntly. "food service drone zim." he growls, glaring at the tray in his hands as his grip tightens and his claws start scratching it. He slams the tray down on the table angrily,  
"Former invader zim." He hisses as he walks off, too frustrated to talk anymore.

Dib wants to follow him but decides against it, he doesn't want to further anger zim so he picks up one of the fried green tentacles and dips it in the purple glorbberry sauce, taking a bite, the outside was dry and crispy, but the inside was soft, meaty, and juicy, it was a bit bland with a mild savory flavor and pretty salty, it was quite chewy and the sauce helped sweeten the meat and give it more flavor, it was weird... but not bad. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by and angry scream that sounded unmistakably like zim's loud high pitched voice. he hoped zim would come back once he cooled off and left the bathroom, he wanted to keep talking to him.

Zim stormed off from dib's table and headed into the bathroom, an alien was washing their hands at the sink, he gives them a death glare "get out." He snarls, the alien leaves quickly, they didn't want to deal with an angry irken, zim didn't care if he'd get in trouble for being rude. The moment they left he made it a point to slam his fist into the wall, seething with anger. He snarls in frustration and angrily claws the wall, leaving scratch marks across the metal as tears well up in his eyes. He activates his pak legs and screams with rage as he assaults the wall with lasers, leaving black scorch marks on the wall. his yelling was even loud enough for dib to hear, even though he was a few tables away. At this point the tears were streaming down his face, he walks over to the sink to pull himself together, only to look in the mirror and find he was crying, this somehow made him even more angry and he punches the mirror, shattering it, and wipes away the tears. He leans against the sink, panting, trying to calm down. 

Dib watches zim walk by his table and gets up grabbing his hand "zim, are you ok?"  
Zim scoffs "im fine, I dont need help from an inferior alien."  
he says with frustration he says pulling his hand away 

"For one, im a human, for two, you can talk to me, its obvious you're not ok." he presses

Zim crosses his arms "I just met you.... I need to get back to work..." 

Zim grabs a rag off the counter and walks over to a disgusting table covered in a brown sticky sauce that almost looked like syrup, he works to wipe up the gross mess but it was proving to be difficult, and he decided to say screw it and go talk to the human, that way he might actually be able to enjoy his day a little, few aliens actually tried to talk to him, or treat him with kindness.

He slaps the wet rag onto the gross table, and walks over to the human's, he felt a little awkward, it had been awhile since the last time he tried to strike up a actual meaningful conversation with someone "um, how's the food human?"

Dib finishes crunching on another tentacle, "its weird but good." dib had eaten better, but he didnt want to tell zim that, after all, he had cooked it for dib, the last thing he wanted to do was insult him.

"Have you eaten this kind of food before?"

"Nope, its different from the other food I've eaten, and its nothing like the food from my home planet."

"Ive never actually heard of a human before.... um... what's your name? And what's your home planet like?"

Dib pauses "I'm dib.... what's earth like huh? It has blue water and green plants... oh wait you probably mean like what food do we eat, well, human are called omnivores because we eat meat and plants, so we make food out of almost anything, they do serve tentacles on earth, but I've never eaten them."

Zim looks at dib with fascination as he talks, actually feeling a little better, someting about this dib makes everything suck a little less.

Zim looks up at dib's hair "you're kinda messy, are all humans like that?"

Dib blinks "no, I just haven't gotten a chance to brush my hair yet" he says a bit embarrassed that zim noticed his messy appearance.

"Anyway, tell me about you, I've never met an alien like you before" dib says with interest, leaning on his arm and taking another bite of crispy tentacle meat. 

"Zim is an irken, a product of a military empire intent on dominating the universe, zim was a soldier of the empire, an invader, meant to conquer planets, now... i serve food..." he says bitterly

"No i mean, what are your antennae..things... for?"

"Oh, zim's antennae are for smelling, hearing, expression. Why does that matter?"

"Its just.. new to me, like I said, I've never met someone like you...." he picks up one of the tentacles and offers it to zim "you want one?"

Zim tilts his head "oh, wait really? sure, thanks..." he sounded surprised. he takes the tentacle and takes a bite of it and he looks a bit grossed out "its.. very salty..." 

Dib blinks "um here," he hands him the sauce cup "this makes it taste better"

Zim dips the meat into the sauce, taking a bite and  
his eyes light up a bit, "zim has never had this before.. the sauce makes it so much better, its ordered often and I cook it a lot but zim never knew it was this good" he swallows "thank you..." he looks like he wants to say more but he doesn't.

Dib smiles "your welcome, I can't believe you never eaten this before, dont you make yourself lunch?"

"Irkens dont need to eat much, zim is only allowed to eat every few days, zim doesn't get to try his own cooking very often, im not allowed to eat the nice food like this" he gestures to the partly bitten tentacle in his hand "we are supposed to save the nice food for the customers."

"Oh, um that really sucks...... he said awkwardly, unsure of what to say "um anyway whats your pronouns? I kinda figured you were male but i should ask anyway."

"Im male, he/him"

"Oh, im the same"

There's a moment of awkward silence before dib speaks again 

"Do um, all irkens have such pre- I mean, have eyes like yours?"

"Yes, different colors, but our eyes are all similar"

"Are all humans so nice to be around?" 

Dib blushes a little "depends on the human, and what you think of them... you think I'm nice to be around?"

"Yes, you are much more interesting than other aliens... and you're.... nice to look at." zim says awkwardly, avoiding eye contact.

**Author's Note:**

> This is all I got so far  
> Both dib and zim are lonely and aimless, they need something (or someone) to put purpose back into their lives.
> 
> I dont know how many people will actually like this, but I posted just the concept for the alternate stripper au, and apparently some people actually liked it, so I figure they will probably like this too.
> 
> Edit: these won't have proper grammar or punctuation until i finish the chapter  
> Also im updating this now cause I've added more, ill probably be adding to these wip stories very sporadically


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